Make Believe Mailer Vol. 49: Sample Pack
In a good bit of timing, September saw the release of three albums by Japanese artists built on a foundation of samples. Each one takes a very different approach to how they are used and what kind of feelings they are trying to stir up, and each manages to be a noteworthy collection because of how the person behind them approaches this instrument. This week, let's look a little closer at this trio.
Foodman — Aru Otoko No Densetsu
Foodman turns samples into nonsense, and than transforms that nonsense into wonky jams. The Nagoya-based artist has become the face of contemporary Japanese experimental music, spurred early on by his mutant exercises in juke before blazing his own path. It all crested with 2016's Ez Minzoku (my favorite of the year), a deliriously fun set where every noise fell Tetris-like into the right spot and the sound of pitched-up screaming could anchor a track.
Aru Otoko No Densetsu finds Foodman expanding on his musical geography. His sonic palette remains a disorienting funhouse, and this time around can even feel familiar -- see the pitch-shifted yelps of "Akarui," the wild kitchen-sink smacking that opens up "Tata." Yet he's playing around more with texture, and again samples play a massive role here. "Percussion" adds an extra layer of depth via the sound of a fizzy drink being poured, while the faded guitar drifting through "Fue" offers a sense of space to the more direct sounds unfolding above it.
Foodman's music celebrates how things sound, and this album offers new terrain for him to do just that. It's not all dependent on samples -- check "Clock" featuring Tokyo-based artist Machina, the closest Foodman has come on any of his albums to making something resembling a traditional song -- but I find the moments where music clearly pulled from outside is brought into his circus tent the most intriguing. Just give "Body" a listen, as it opens with what sounds like Showa-era pop sounds before dissolving into a mess of samples colliding into one another. All of it sounds familiar, but together Foodman transforms them into something new. Which is a good summation of what makes this one of the year's best.
Stuts — Eutopia
The newest album from MPC maestro Stuts comes at a weird moment in his career. He somehow found himself in the orbit of Hoshino Gen, and provided the beat to (and appeared in the video for) part of his latest single "Idea." This collection of hip-hop beats built from dusty samples is getting a surprising amount of attention as a result. It's deserved attention -- unlike the sea of Japan-based (and, really, beyond) beat makers flooding Bandcamp with their loops of bargain bin jazz records, Stuts can actually make a compelling song from samples on his own (though, wisely, he loads Eutopia up with guest spots, mostly from rappers, but also appearances by Thai artist Phum Viphurit and early City Pop revivalist Hitomitoi...used on one of the least nostalgic songs, twist!).
There's an element of Eutopia trying to tap into Japan's current hip-hop community, but when other voices don't appear the main atmosphere here is one of nostalgia. Nothing new for Stuts -- his last album featured direct references via sample to DJ Shadow and J. Dilla. There's nothing quite as obvious, but Eutopia uses samples to convey a sense of longing for the past, through boom-bap hip-hop construction to warmer, downright tropical climes (more on that in a second). There's a weird circular thing going on here -- the sound of a 20-something Japanese producer trying to imitate the producers of early hip-hop who were in turn capturing the sounds of their youth into a new context -- that makes this a solid listen. And, at a time when nostalgia is running rampant in Japanese pop culture, it's nice to see it presented from a different angle.
Halfby — Last Aloha
People in Japan love Hawaii. As various articles and academic papers have pointed out, people in Japan "long" for the islands, and in recent years that has meant longing for anything from Hawaii. Amazon Prime Vido launched an original series in Japan this year about the story of a Hawaiian pancake restaurant, for goodness sakes. Kyoto producer Halfby has long been intrigued by the 50th state, but his interest in the chain really came through on 2015's Innn Hawaii, a set that used samples from cheesy tourist videos and island-flavored music to create a breezy set. Last Aloha continues that idea, but rather than calling on Alfred Beach Sandal to vibe out while JTB footage plays in the video, Halfby creates an album nodding to the fact he's creating a fantasy world of an imagined Hawaii.
Samples warp and get all stretched out. Ukulele slows down into a blazed-out sound a timeshare shiller would kill to have during their presentation. Sounds of the weather and animals and people spouting out the word "aloha" collide to create this utopian version of beach-side life that could never exist. Without any of that extra thinking, Last Aloha is a lovely bit of tropical cool with traces of chillwave and new age sprinkled in. Yet it's also the midpoint between Foodman's new world and Stuts gaze backwards, using samples to get nostalgic for a place that Halfby seems to have created in his head.
News And Views
Those ex-SMAP boys have signed with Warner Music Group, what does the future hold here??
Kingdom Hearts is a video game where Final Fantasy folks criss-cross with Ham the piggybank and the Danny DeVito centaur from Hercules. Fittingly, Utada Hikaru will collide with Skrillex and Poo Bear for the theme song to the next installment of that game.
Da Pump continue an improbably 2018 by reaching the summit...collaborating with green fuzzy ball Suumo in a new commercial.
OK, keep up with this one, it's weird...Boku no Lyric no Boyomi is an up-and-coming J-pop artist who has been gaining attention over the last few years for a genre-hopping style rooted in rapping, although he's been inching closer to that mainstream in recent times. He's on a pretty good rise! Anyway, over the last few days he has...kind of melted down on Twitter? The gist of it is, starting with this tweet wherein he wishes he could have been a regular person, Boku started acting strange. Apparently sick of people saying he was good, he asked for his haters to tell him why he sucked...which they obliged, prompting him to call them "grandmas" (or, at least words in Japanese that are negative versions of that, I guess like "old hag"). He's also retiring in January, or at least retiring this project? Zero idea what is going on here...maybe he is having serious troubles, maybe he's an overly serious asshole...but as I'm writing this he's posting apologies about how tired he is and how he'll focus on publicity from here on out (and how maybe it was all marketing for his last live?). Total mess, dude is trying to Enon Kawatani himself so badly.
The moral here? Don't use Twitter, it is ruining all of us.Know who is still loved and wouldn't do anything goofy on Twitter? Tim Hecker, who also loves that gagaku.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Sept. 17 2018 To Sept. 23 2018
On the single side -- AKB48 with their Jurina Matsui featuring (kinda) number. On the album side -- Tohoshinki. I realize I've been blathering about this for...what, when did I start this email thingy?...but it still boggles my mind that Oricon carries this image of importance with non-Japanese fans of Japanese music (whereas in Japan...the majority of people think they are trash, one element to interpret in a bigger picture at best). This week kind of gets at why I find this thinking frustrating...both of these artists have their fans and aren't flukes, but by doing so well on these charts their current influence is vastly overinflated.
Perfume's GAME (33 1/3)
My entry in the 33 1/3 Japan series is out now! Get a copy at Bloomsbury or Amazon. Or at Kinokuniya bookstores in the US.
Look At Me!
More and more Japanese TV shows are trying to incorporate social media into their format, and I wrote about it for Pulse this week. Spoiler -- the twist here is that making a good TV show that people will talk about on Twitter is better than an educational show where you teach people what #bae means.
Blog highlights: Nonsense Love Letter, Mom, Upusen
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
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